Q&A: Why Monks Are Taking to Thailand’s Streets

Buddhist Monk Buddha Issara says it’s time for monks to step forward and point out what is right or wrong in Thai society.

Buddhist monk Buddha Issara has been at the forefront of months-long antigovernment protests in Thailand. He has frequently railed against the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and has helped organize boycotts against businesses perceived to be linked to her family.

But some Thais are wary of the monk’s interest in worldly affairs. They fear that a faith more often associated with quiet contemplation in tranquil monasteries than with raucous street protests is being sucked into an increasingly fractious political conflict that has claimed at least 22 lives in recent months.

WSJ: Is the role of Buddhist monks changing in Thailand? Why did you decided to take to the streets to lead political protests?

Wilawan Watcharasakwet/The Wall Street Journal

Buddha Issara is often seen moving around his protest camp in the northern outskirts of Bangkok with a walkie-talkie and tough-looking security guards.

Buddha Issara: This is not a new phenomenon for the Thai monk movement. We have seen monks play a political role before during Ayutthaya and early Rattanakosin periods [from the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries], when the relationship between the religious authority and the Kingdom were united. It was like that until the Siamese revolution of 1932, which ended absolute monarchy. Monks were sidelined from political influence and the administration of the country. Religious authorities no longer had any role in advising the governance of the kingdom, unlike before. They were criticized as free riders in Thai society who didn’t help others, and only eat or sleep. It’s time for monks to point out what is right or wrong so that society will see what the government has done to the country.

WSJ: Are you risking your status by pursuing this course?

Buddha Issara: I think most people who visit temples or monasteries are good anyway. It’s better to care for the people on the street. Even those who come to the temple, you have to wait for them to arrive before you can teach them. There is also an emphasis on being neutral. Monks these days can’t clearly say what is wrong and what is right. The country has to reform its religions as well as its politics, and we have to change the way that Thai monks think, how to apply the principles of the Lord Buddha’s teachings to the everyday life.

WSJ: What do you think about the activism of Buddhist monks in places like Sri Lanka and Myanmar?

Buddha Issara: Those monks ran out of patience when they saw the people suffering. Their lives depend on people who give them alms, so they have to step forward to participate in social movements to show they are more than just spiritual leaders who can help them in the next life. They can also help in this life, and this is right according to the Lord Buddha’s teachings.

WSJ: Some people in Thailand disagree with your ideas.

Buddha Issara: They use feeling instead of principle to judge this. The word ‘people’ doesn’t prohibit monks or the clergy. It means everyone, all genders and all ages. I’m exercising my constitutional freedoms and following the Lord Buddha’s teachings.

WSJ: How do you feel when senior officers from state agencies have to get permission from you to get to their work place?

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